Anna Roys says:>What I find as an interesting phenomenon in working with students and rhythm is that even many pre-schoolers and early elementary students can hear and duplicate and play along with complicated rhythms if they have enough hands on exploration time with percussion instruments, such as in drum circles. Why is this possible without any "training?"

Anna Roys>Secondly, I have another observed phenomenon to share. I have taken these same students and taught them 4/4 timing so that I could do multiplication drills with them (and not go nuts with out of rhythm players) just prior to the timed 3 daily minute tests. I set up a control group that only did the daily 3 minute timed multiplication tests and no "drumming drills." Interesting enough I found that the ones drumming were able to master their multiplication tables quicker than the ones who did not.

Some related links: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-24124158 "People who performed better on rhythmic tests also showed enhanced neural responses to speech sounds.The researchers suggest that practising music could improve other skills, particularly reading."

Your math experiment should perhaps be written up.Or perhaps you have already.